Divisions of Law

Abstract This chapter offers an in-depth textual study of the legal theory in Jean Bodin’s Iuris Universi Distributio. The chapter observes the Ciceronian and Ramist influences on Bodin’s method, which treats “law as a whole” [ius universum] as the chief object of inquiry in jurisprudence. Bodin divides the science of law according to the four Aristotelian causes. This chapter focuses on the first three causes—the formal, material, and efficient causes in law and legal science. The chapter shows how Bodin reorganized, in an unorthodox manner, the substantive content of classical Roman law and aspects of civil law practiced in French courts. The chapter focuses particularly on aspects of the law of property, contracts, and legal procedure, to underline the universality of law across history and peoples.